Airlift Featherwing not working with Feather M4 Express

For CircuitPython issues, ask in the Adafruit CircuitPython forum.

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
mmx009
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2021 11:57 pm

Airlift Featherwing not working with Feather M4 Express

Post by mmx009 »

Hello folks,

This is my first time doing Arduino stuff, so hopefully I don't make a foul of myself. I have a Feather M4 express that I'm trying to use with a Airlift through SPI. I've soldered the header strip on both boards and also tested for continuity, so I assume that my soldering work works. When I connect the USB cable to the Feather M4, I don't see the LED on the Airlift light up. I assume the LED should turn on signaling that it's powered.

I tried running the wifi connectivity code found through the different tutorials, and I get the following error:

Code: Select all

code.py output:
ESP32 SPI webclient test
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "code.py", line 50, in <module>
  File "adafruit_esp32spi/adafruit_esp32spi.py", line 335, in status
  File "adafruit_esp32spi/adafruit_esp32spi.py", line 325, in _send_command_get_response
  File "adafruit_esp32spi/adafruit_esp32spi.py", line 308, in _wait_response_cmd
  File "adafruit_esp32spi/adafruit_esp32spi.py", line 292, in _wait_response_cmd
  File "adafruit_esp32spi/adafruit_esp32spi.py", line 271, in _wait_spi_char
RuntimeError: Timed out waiting for SPI char
After failing to get it working, I tried to upgrade the firmware using the pass-through method with the Feather M4. I soldered the 3 pins on the back, and set the M4 on bootloader mode, copied Airlift-Feather-FeatherWing-Passthru.UF2 over to the FEATHERBOOT drive. After that I then tried to use esptool.py to copy the firmware, but failed with the following error:

Code: Select all

$ esptool.py --port /dev/ttyACM1 --before no_reset --baud 115200 write_flash 0 NINA_W102-1.7.4.bin
esptool.py v3.1
Serial port /dev/ttyACM1
WARNING: Pre-connection option "no_reset" was selected. Connection may fail if the chip is not in bootloader or flasher stub mode.
Connecting........_____....._____....._____....._____....._____....._____....._____

A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to Espressif device: Invalid head of packet (0xD5)
I've uploaded a few pictures here: https://imgur.com/a/22sZmuF

Thanks,

User avatar
dastels
 
Posts: 15662
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:22 pm

Re: Airlift Featherwing not working with Feather M4 Express

Post by dastels »

No, the LED on the AirLift wing is a status light, not a power light.

The wiring looks good. I can't really see the soldering very well. But the first things I recheck when something just doesn't work is the wiring and soldering. Other than out of date libraries, those are a very common problem.

Dave

User avatar
mmx009
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2021 11:57 pm

Re: Airlift Featherwing not working with Feather M4 Express

Post by mmx009 »

dastels wrote:No, the LED on the AirLift wing is a status light, not a power light.
Thanks! Good to know!

So without much changes, I was able to get the webclient test to work. The airlift is connecting to wifi and coming back with an http response. Yet, I'm still unable to update the firmware. I've been trying the same steps that I mentioned in the first post:

1. Soldered the 3 pins underneath the airlift.
2. Double press the reset button on the feather to set it on bootloader mode.
3. Copy over the passthrough .uf2 file.
4. Wait for feather to reboot
5. Run esptool.py --port /dev/ttyACM0 --before no_reset --baud 115200 write_flash 0 NINA_W102-1.7.4.bin

I still get the same error: Failed to connect to Espressif device: Timed out waiting for packet header.

I know the firmware hasn't been upgraded yet because the webclient test shows the version as Firmware vers. bytearray(b'1.2.2\x00').

Something curious that I found while doing continuity tests from pins in the feather to the pins on the airlift, is that while running the webclient test, there's continuity as expected from USB pin to USB pin. But when I'm ready to run the esptool.py command, there's continuity on all pins except USB. I can't tell if this is expected or not.

Thanks for the help.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Wireless: WiFi and Bluetooth”